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H!P Girls Part 4 – Takahashi Ai

Yes it’s time for the next installment in my occasional series looking at those members of Hello! Project who particularly stand out to me. In other words it’s time for my next feeble excuse to post lots of pictures of someone very pretty. 😀

The first thing I noticed about Takahashi Lovely was those eyes. So full of life, so cute and completely mesmerising. Add to that a heartbreakingly pretty face and a lovely figure and you have someone very beautiful indeed. But looks are nothing without a personality to match and Takahashi’s personality more than matches. If you look back at the early days of the 5th gen you see that right from the word go here was somebody with a real star quality. Somebody who was brimful of kawaii but would never think of herself as kawaii. Somebody with a unique character that was happy, sweet, funny and sometimes odd (but in a good way). Somebody who was, in short, the perfect musume. A true idol. If you haven’t already, and you ever get the chance to, check out any Hello! Morning episode and you’ll see just what I mean. She was adorable as a sparrow in Gomaki Sparrow’s Child Raising Diary and very funny stealing the show from Yuko and Rika (no mean feat) during their Hello Pro News days. Not that she needs any gimmicks to stand out. Just her being herself is more than enough. Whenever she’s given the chance she shines.

Now Takahashi is Momuso’s leader and is very much at the forefront of Morning Musume (not to mention her starring role in Cinderella the Musical and it’s spin-off group High-King). This petite Japanese beauty is basically the face of modern day H!P. As MM’s leader she has to follow such big hitters as Yuko, Iida, Yaguchi (all too briefly) and Yossie. Despite having a personality that would seem less forward than the previous leaders and despite being leader at what could be seen as a potentially difficult time for MM she has stepped into centre stage and is now making it her own. Well okay Tsunku is making it her own but you need to be able to take the chance when it’s given. I’m not convinced Takahashi is a natural leader as her personality doesn’t seem too forward (not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just we’re used to seeing more forceful leaders) but she certainly leads by example on stage and that’s where it counts the most. Plus in terms of being an idol what more could you want from someone than having beauty within to match the beauty on the surface? All this and I haven’t even really touched on her sense of humour (which so often makes Haromoni worth watching), her voice, her dancing skills or her acting (all areas she is not lacking in).

I heartily recommend Takahashi Ai’s Alo-Hello dvd, any episodes of Hello! Morning, her Futarigoto episode with Niigaki Risa and the video to Sakura Gumi’s single Sakura Mankai if you want to see Takahashi Lovely really shine. Anyway as promised here are some pics…